Another casualty of the new Leaside

Another casualty of modern Leaside: Van Nes Flowers, which moved to Bayview Ave. in 1987 and then five years ago to Parkhurst, is leaving because the building is coming down.

The company will now become part of Tidy’s Flowers in Etobicoke.

Richard Van Nes says he found it hard to tell his father, who is still alive and started the business in 1953 at Yonge and Broadway.

The store left there because of rising rents, and then the same happened on Bayview. Van Nes was hoping to renew a five-year lease on Parkhurst. But now, he says, he couldn’t see himself starting over again at his age.

The business has now become a luxury, he adds, doing well at times like Christmas and Valentine’s Day, but the public does not buy flowers the way they used to.